Reigning champion Judd Trump suffered an early exit as this year’s Masters continued to amaze snooker fans all over the world.
Trump’s 6-3 loss to Shaun Murphy this afternoon means that all five higher ranked players to have played so far have crashed out of the tournament at the first round.
The world’s top 8 including Trump, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen have all been sent home in what has been an incredible start to the Triple Crown event.
Judd Trump. Picture by Monique Limbos
Trump, looking to become only the third player in history to successfully defend their maiden Masters title, got off to a bright start with a break of 128 before Murphy hit back to win the next two frames.
The world number one then hit two more centuries either side of the interval to retake the lead at 3-2 but then it was all one-way traffic as Murphy made clearance after clearance to gain an impressive win.
Tonight John Higgins will hope to avoid becoming the sixth higher ranked star to lose in the first round. The Scot meets Barry Hawkins.
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